False twisting apparatus



Jan. 12, 1943.

N. s. C AMPBELL 4 FALSE TWISTING APPARATUS Original Filed June 5, 1941 Z SheetS-Sheet l INVENTOR W ATTORNEYS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed June 5, 1941 i all HI II II' !I ll 11mm u III lllllll 9 r e n v m Wm T 4% w Y m M f 00 MHZ M W, MB 2; M \I Patented Jan. 12, 1943 FALSE TWIS'TING APPARATUS Nelson S. Campbell, Greenwich, Conn.

Original application June 5, 1941, =ScrialNo.

396,676, now Patent No. 2,294,771, dated September 1, 1942. Divided and this application May 6, 1942, Serial No. 441,899

Claims.

This application is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 396,676, which has become Patent No. 2,294,771.

This invention relates to one step in the formation of a staple fiber sliver by the treatment of a group of a large number of filaments in a form somewhat similar to the usual sliver except that each filament is in a form which is commonly called a continuous length.

An object of the complete process is the simplifying of the process of converting groups of continuous length fibers into slivers of spinnable length fibers by the elimination of one or more of the steps which it is customary to employ and thus causing a saving in both the machinery and labor in the final result obtained.

An object of the invention to which this application relates is to impart enough twist or false twist to the staple fiber sliver to package the sliver so as to make it possible to feed the sliver from the package to the next operation without licking.

Another more specific object of the invention is to so arrange the application of the false twist mechanism that false twist will positively be put in and held during packaging.

Another object of the invention is to twist or false twist the sliver by suitable movement of means which at the same time feed the sliver for ward.

Another object of the invention is to twist the sliver by a rotation of a feeding means which nips the sliver and so holds the sliver at and beyond the point of nipping the sliver as to retain the twist placed in the sliver up to the point of nip.

A further object of the invention is to alternately rotate or oscillate the feeding means for twisting the sliver and to hold the twist put in the sliver by rotation or oscillation of feeding means in one direction and to then allow the fibers freedom to receive additional twist by the opposite direction of rotation or oscillation.

A further object of the invention is to so drive the conveying means for the fibers during false twisting that a constant forward movement will be imparted to the fibers even though they are being revolved in one direction or the other direction.

A further specific object of the invention is to drive a plurality of rolls for feeding the work forward and at the same time revolving these rolls at a unit first in one direction and then in the other direction about the work as an axis without affecting the forward feeding rotation given to each of the rolls.

Cir

vention consists of certain novel features of construction, as will be more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the controller illustrating work as passing into and out of the controller;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the controller;

Fig. 3 is a lateral sectional view across the axis of the controller;

Fig. 4 is a section on substantially line 4-4 of Fig.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the roll assembly unit which may be positioned within the cylindrical drum;

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the take up for the flexible shaft.

In working with synthetic fibers, it is found that these fibers are wild and unruly and have little cohesion one for the other. Therefore, they must be treated in a manner somewhat different from the natural fibers'of wool or the like where such cohesion is much greater and the fibers will stick together. I also find that very little friction may be satisfactorily used to operate upon these synthetic wild and unruly fibers as they do not well respond to friction upon their surfaces and further that a twist or false twist is applied to the fibers with difiiculty because of their very nature, and in order to avoid some of these difiiculties, I have provided an apparatus to grip and control the fibers and feed them continuously through the apparatus while a knife operating obliquely to the line of travel of the work plane is caused to sever the fibers while these fibers are maintained in a generally parallel direction after which the sections ofsevered fibers are passed through a drawing operation and are then condensed into sliver form and falsely twisted. The condensing is performed by traveling aprons with-' out any pinching of the fibers in their passage through the condenser and the false twist is put in the sliver in a new manner. Ordinarily, if a point in a running sliver is gripped and twisted while the sliver is slipping throughthe grip, the twist on the portion approaching the twisting point will be in one direction and the twist on the portion leaving the twisting'point will be in the With these and other objects in view, the inother direction so that if the end of the sliver is not turning, no twist actually results because what false twist occurs is neutralized except when the mechanism starts to reverse. I, however, will rotate the sliver in opposite directions but instead of holding the fibers at a single point for twisting,

I will grip and hold the fibers through a substantial extent of feeding of the fibers While the gripping and holding means rotate the sliver to put in false twist and I so proportion and time the mechanism that the feed or travel of the sliver while held is equal to the time which it takes to revolve the sliver in one direction so that the twisting means will have the opposite movement to operate upon the twist of the sliver as it leaves the twisting means and thus will impart more false twist to the sliver instead of takin out the twist already put in, and I then package the sliver before an opportunity is afforded to relieve the false twist put in by a fast traversing package to lay the sliver at substantially right angles so that I have a package of a coherent sliver twisted sufficiently so that it may be drawn-from the package without licking for further operation. These manipulations form a sliver which is in draftable form and may be directly put into an apparatus for further drawing without the necessity of passing the same through a card to straighten the staple fiber, thereby eliminating a great deal of waste and breaking of the fiber which has heretofore been occasioned, the same being accomplished with no opposing friction after the fibers are cut and accordingly a minimum amount of tendency to break the fiber as it is passed through the apparatus.

The apparatus consists essentially of a means for feeding the ropes into web form and thence through the various operations, a means for cutting the work obliquely or diagonally to the path of its travel through the apparatus, a drafting of the fibers inweb form after cut, a condensing of the fibers into sliver form, and an imparting of false twist to the sliver and then packaging the same. This particular application is directed to the false twisting of the sliver the entire process being claimed in application Serial No. 396,676 and other parts being claimed in other copending applications.

In the application disclosing several steps in the process, Serial No. 396,676, three different alternate forms of controller apparatus are shown. Two of these forms are claimed specifically in my copending' application, Serial No. 340,415, and the third form shown therein is the subject of this present application.

With reference to the drawings a suitable' rotatable mounting is provided by means of bands 9 enclosing ball bearings II! for a cylindrical drum I I which is usually cast of some light-weight material such as aluminum alloy or the like. The drumwill have extending therefrom a boss I2 (see Fig. 3) and also a mounting projection I3 with helical ribs I4 forming a helical channel I5 as seen in Figs. 1 and 2. Abutments II are provided interiorlyof the drum which serve to locate the conveyor rolls which may be mounted within the cylindrical drum, and then suitably driven from outside of the drum through'a connection thereto.

The conveyor roll unit consists of an upper cast plate and a lower cast plate 2I which are secured in spaced relation by means of tubular posts 22 through which bolts 23 pass and have threaded engagement with the lower plate 2 I. Opposite pairs of rolls 2'4 and 25 are mounted at spaced intervals along the unit, there being shown here six pairs of such rolls, somounted that their fiuted peripheries just clear one another. Each of these rolls is fixed to a shaft 21 which is supported just inwardly of each plate by ball bearings 26 and extends through the opposite plates. The ball bearings are held in place by inwardly extending annular projections 28 as may be seen in section in Fig. 3. Each roll shaft 27 carries a gear 36 at one end which gears mesh with idlers 3I so that the rolls 24 in one line and the opposing rolls 25 in the other line will turn in unison. In order to cause the opposite pairs of rolls to rotate in unison one of the rolls of a pair is connected to be driven from the other as by means of gears 32 and 33 (see Figs. 3 and 5) at the opposite ends of the shafts 21 from that uponwhich the gears 30 are located. By this arrangement all rolls in the unit will turn together. The gears 32 and 33 are provided with hubs 34 and secured to their shafts 21 by a set screw 35. This unit of rolls mounted between these plates 23 and 2I is positioned into the drum from one end thereof to engage the abutments I1 and is secured in place by set screw -58 as shown in Fig. 3.

The shaft upon which the gear 33 is mounted is the shaft which is driven from the outside. A short shaft 35 is suitably mounted in a ballbearing in a cup threaded into the boss I2 and designated generally 31 and is coupled to shaft 2I as at 38, while it has mounted on its outer end a worm gear 39 shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4. This worm gear meshes with a worm 41 which is mounted on a short shaft 42 supported by ball bearings 53 at either end, suitably held in the housing I6 by means of the threaded plugs 44. At one end of this shaft 42, a flexible shaft 46 is connected through a universal joint 41. This flexible shaft provides a suitable conduit 48 for the rotating flexible member 49 therein so as to rotate the worm 4|. This flexible shaft 46 is coiled more than once about the drum I I in the helical channel I5 provided therefor, and then extends to some suitable driving means indicated in Fig. 6 as bevel gears and 56 for imparting rotation to the part 49 of this flexible shaft. I

As shown in thedrawings in Fig. 1, the flexible shaft is tightly coiled about the drum, and in this position the drum will be at its extreme of rotation in one direction. However, in its extremeof rotation in the other direction the shaft will be loose upon the drum and will suspend therefrom the slack of which is taken up by a weight 5'! to exercise some control of the shaft.

After the work leaves the condensing step in the complete process the work designated 50 will enter between the first pair of rolls 24 and 25 and be conveyed through the controller to emerge from the last pair of rolls 24 and 25, these rolls being driven by the flexible shaft just described. As

first in one direction and then in the other direction by means of a gear 5| (see Fig. 1) secured to the. drum driven by a gear 52. This gear 52 is driven first in one direction and then in the other direction by any suitable alternating rotating mechanism, such for instance as the mechanism shown in my application Serial No. 396,676 above referred to.

The timing relationship for the opposite rotation of thedrum I I will be such that rotation will occur in one direction during the length of .time that it takes for a point on the work to travel from the nip of the first pair of rolls 2425 engaged, to the nip of the last pair of rolls 24-25 of the series, then the drum will rotate in the opposite direction for the same period of time or during a length of time that a point on the work will travel from the nip of the first pair of rolls to the nip of the last pair of rolls. In thismanner twist will be put into the work as it moves from the last operation performed upon it to the controller and the same twist will be put into the work as it leaves the controller between the controller and the packaging means. During the time that the work passes through the controller and is gripped between the rolls 24 and 25 it will be held against twisting or untwisting and the twist previously put in will be held. Thus the twist put in at the point just prior to entry of the work into the controller will have added to the twist put in between the end of the controller and the next operation or packaging of the work, so as to increase the false twist put in the work. This false twist is held against release by immediate packaging. In'this manner I am able to put enough false twist into the work for its packaging without licking which is the next step in the process more fully laid out in my copending application above referred to.

I claim:

1. A device for revolving a sliver about its longitudinal axis comprising rolls to longitudinally feed the sliver, means to revolve all of the rolls first in one direction and then in the opposite direction about the center of the work as an axis and drive means to rotate the rolls for feeding the work longitudinally at the same speed regardless of the opposite revolving of the rolls, said driving means including a flexible shaft helically disposed about the axis of the work as a center.

2. A device for revolving a sliver about its longitudinal axis comprising a series of opposed pairs of rolls to longitudinally feed the sliver, means to revolve all of the rolls in the series first in one direction and then in the opposite direction about the center of the work as an axis, and drive means to move the rolls for feeding the work longitudinally at the same speed regardless of the opposite revolving of the rolls, said driving means including a flexible shaft to move with the rolls as revolved.

3. A device for revolving a sliver about its longitudinal axis comprising a series of opposed pairs of rolls geared together to longitudinally feed the sliver, means to revolve all of the rolls first in one direction and then in the opposite direction about the center of the work as an axis, a flexible shaft helically disposed about the axis of the work as a center for feeding the work longitudinally at the same speed regardless of the opposite revolving of the rolls.

4. A device for revolving a sliver about its longitudinal axis comprising a series of opposed pairs of rolls geared together to rotate in unison to longitudinally feed the sliver, means to revolve all of the rolls of the series first in one direction and then in the opposite direction about the center of the work as an axis, and drive means to rotate the rolls for feeding the work longitudinally at the same speed regardless of the opposite revolving of the rolls, said driving means comprising a flexible shaft helically disposed about the axis of the rolls as a center and gearing connected with said flexible shaft.

5. A device for revolving a sliver about its longitudinal axis comprising a drum, a unit comprising rolls to longitudinally feed the sliver, means to removably mount said unit in said drum, means to revolve the drum first in one direction and then in the opposite direction about the center of the work as an axis and drive means to rotate the rolls for feeding the work longitudinally at the same speed regardless of the opposite revolving of the rolls.

NELSON S. CAMPBELL. 

